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The Purge

We’ve been steadily getting rid of our possessions over the last few weeks as we prepare to move into a cheaper, furnished house for our last couple months in San Diego. We’ve gone through several purge “waves” over the last couple months and after each wave we’ve looked around the house and said, “How do we still have SO MUCH stuff?!”

This time, I think we’re nearly there. We recently completed our second (!) garage sale this month, and have made three trips to Goodwill with the car piled high with clothes and knickknacks to donate. It feels strange to be doing this. We’ve donated and sold our fair share of stuff over the years, but rarely do you find yourself selling or giving away things that you actually want and use. Immersion blender, coffee pot, favorite books, favorite shoes… all of these are things we’ve had to part with during the process. The longer it drags out though, the easier it gets. You reach a point where’ you’re like “I just want this to be over, sure throw that thing away.”

Nearly all of our worldly possessions

Everything we haven’t sold or given away yet is inside the lovely 5×8 storage unit that’s currently sitting in front of our house, waiting to be picked up. We decided to keep a few pieces of furniture, our art, and a bunch of other crap that you look at and say “oh that won’t take up much room at all!” Then you find yourself frantically trying to shove things into every last nook and cranny and thinking “oh for fuck’s sake do we really need to keep this pillow?”

But I think we have it. We’ve managed to get the storage unit door closed and locked, and we’re looking around the house now thinking “ok, we still have SO MUCH stuff but it’s getting manageable.” We’ve got the next two months to get rid of the rest of what we own before we load up the car and drive to New Jersey. We have some more clothes to get rid of, and we still need to figure out what we’re going to do with the cat, but we’ve sold, gifted, or stored about 90% of everything we own at this point. Progress!